Hey Orcon - Is this similar to a nightmare?

Youch.

For a few days I have seen tweets coming through from @timkelleher in regards to him not having Internet or phone from Orcon. Now, knowing my reliance on the internet, I can imagine how frustrating it is to be without.

So, I don't know the full back story on this, but I imagine it is 'sign up - no internet or phone - get frustrated - take things into my own hands'.

Tim has created a website fifteen which is counting up how many days, hours, mins and seconds he has been waiting for Orcon to connect his phone and internet. It also has a tally of how long he has spent on the phone with technical support (which I image is all cell phone based since he has no landline...)

Then, like all smart Twitter users, he is utilising this medium to try to force a response, he has placed a tweet link on the bottom right corner.

And the tweets just keep coming. 

The above shows 8 tweets in 7 minutes. This must be SO frustrating for the people who run the @Orcon twitter account. Obviously they do not have the power to fix this directly, but do the have the power to elicit a response for poor Tim? You have to admit, he must be pretty pissed off to go out of his way to build this site.

I have had excellent action from the likes of @vodafoneNZ in my own experience, fixing issues and answering questions within minutes.

I think I have said it before, but Twitter continues to put power in the consumers hands. Back in my days of retail, I was often told, "a happy customer will tell, on average, 2 people about their experience, an unhappy customer, 11 people". That little line was enough for me to ensure all customers walked out of the store happy. Twitter has magnified the opportunity to express satisfaction, or lack thereof. 

Tim has 663 followers. 

Ben Gracewood tweeted, he has 4,300+ followers.

Ken Freer 1,500 followers

Ben and Ken are just 2 of what looks like over 100 people who have tweeted about this. The reason I picked out those other 2 is because they're quite vocal in the telco space and is often the reason people follow them.

This whole thing is quickly turning into something of a PR disaster. I don't have the answer on how to fix it, but personally, if I was running the Orcon account, I would put out a tweet acknowledging all of the support for Tim and reassure that they are doing everything possible to rectify this issue. From their current twitter stream, it looks like they are just ignoring it. I don't believe this to be a smart move. 


Twitter has given people a voice. They want to be heard. Ignoring them, will just make them louder.


Good luck Tim, hope you get your Internets quickly.

Shake it up baby now

So I have been MIA a bit recently. There are 2 reasons for this:

1. I like Auckland, I like the nightlife. I also like to boogie. Haven't been home much to actually write anything for a while.

2. Nothing has really deserved writing about recently.

Considering the above, I am now going to do a bit of a round up of everything that doesn't deserve a post all to itself.

Mini.

Initially, I liked the Mini Soho campaign. Now, I was basing this solely on the giant billboard and I will stick to that, I LOVED the massive billboard. Unfortunately I think that the rest of their campaign they tried to be too clever and it just didn't gel for me.

For a start, I saw very few of the actual ads (I know that a 3D cinema ad is cool kids - but if the only movie you can play it in is Shrek, is it really worth it?) and I am totally going to admit it, the online ad which you had to enter you IQ, wouldn't let me in. Not because I necessarily have a low IQ (I probably do), but because I do not know (or care) what my IQ is enough to find out, let alone what may be high or low. Hows about we make it relevant?

If you want to read all about what they did do for this campaign, read last months AdMedia. I think.

Then, once the Soho campaign was over we get this:

Yawn. Is anyone else bored? I'm pretty bored. Mini bores me. Sorry. The one with the dog is worse.

Also, balloons for the Ponsonby Street Fair... whatever? Ugh. Why don't you try harder?

Orcon.

Then there was the Orcon banners which everyone talked about. You can read about them here.Honestly - the cover that these damn banners got, I don't understand. So it's a multi-video banner which was shot specifically for the banner. Cool. I mean, it's novel, but I don't think its the be all and end all to save online advertising.

TVNZ

There was a rant here about TVNZ which I think may be better not to share. Let's just go with I think TVNZ are jumping the shark.

OK - there is a lot of negativity in there - sorry kids. I just think that there is a lot of uninspiring work out there at the moment. Nothing has made me step back and go WOW for ages (except of course the amazing work my agency does, but this blog is not about self importance. Much).

It is a shame.

iPad

To end on a positive note however - I had my first play on an iPad the other day and the Herald app. Freaking aye - now that is cool. Really impressed with what the crew at APN have put together for that, and I think there is a really nice balance of advertising in there too. Not too often, but often enough.

The Yellow Page ad - that WAS uber impressive. Very cool ad. You kinda have to see it to understand (if someone wants to screen shot it for me and email it though, please do and I will upload the pics).

EDIT: Ask and you shall receive - the lovely Donna from APN Digital just sent through screen shots for me.

She's all very happy:

But turn the iPad sideways and... Opps!

I think it's great.

But if you have read my blog before, you will know where this is going.

I would like Yellow's advertising better if they would FIX THEIR FREAKING PRODUCT.

I will admit, it is slightly better than it was 6 or so months back, but if I search for Save Mart I still get a butcher.

That is all. Hopefully something amazing comes creeping out of the woodwork and I can write about how inspired I am again.

Note - I wrote this post a month ago in late August and there hasn't been much happening in the meantime, so you guys get an old post. Stink. Sorry about that.